Zelma Eliza Day (1904-1997)
}} Biography This was written by Zelma in 1976. It is about her life and family experiences. It has been copied from her original typed nine page personal history, which is in the possession of some of her descendents. NOTE....THE NAMES OF SOME OF ZELMA'S CHILDREN HAVE NOT BEEN GIVEN BECAUSE THEY ARE STILL LIVING. I was born Friday, July 15, 1904, in Circleville, Piute County, Utah, to Thomas Clark Day and Annie Eliza Berry. I weighed 8 pounds and was the 13th child of a family of 14 children. Before my mother married my father, she was married to Henry Chestnut. To this first union was born three children. They married December 12, 1879 in St. George Utah, and divorced May 1887. My parents had eleven children. I had a good memory of when I was two years old of the house that had a lean-to, of my little friend Albert Beebe who had a big black rocking horse, and I liked his dad and asked him if I could call him Uncle George. I was playing outside and a young chicken kept bothering me. I hit it with a stick and killed it, so my mother was cleaning it to cook for dinner and she pushed on it and it messed on the floor and she had me clean it up. We moved to Junction about six miles away. My grandpa helped build our home. I remember a lot about him. He was a carpenter, and a real good one. He helped put the fancy work on the Salt Lake Temple and Tabernacle. He made me a table, cradle and cupboard that I cherished. My brother Leonard and I went to tell him supper was ready. Leonard sent me to tell him while he lay in the path to scare him..Grandpa fell over him. I felt real bad as I know it hurt him, and some of the boy's loosened the pepper lid and it all went in his dinner. I was teased by a great bunch of brothers that I loved. We were playing in the straw. They had me set in a nest they made. When I got up there was a lot of eggs in the nest, they told me to take them to my mother and tell her I had layed them. It took her quite a time to talk me out of it, as they weren't there when I sat in the nest. Leonard and I found some new hatched robins. We brought them in the house to show a salesman. He jumped over the porch and left. When I was 5 years old we started to move in covered wagons to the Uintah Basin (Vernal, Utah). It took us 3 months. On the way, my mother traded horses with someone. She had her choice of two horses, she chose the quiet brown. He would lay down in every river or mud hole he could see. It almost scared me to death fording the river, anyway. The roads were awful, the wagon tipped over and scattered our things all over. We straightened up the organ and my brother Heber played, "Work for the Night is Coming" I had my 6th birthday in Vernal and my mother let me made my own birthday cake. I was so proud. We had moved into a house that the people had typhoid fever in. We all got typhoid, and were real sick, especially my brother Willard. My mother never took her clothes off for 6 weeks, only long enough to change. Willard had to learn to walk over again. The doctor said he would never live. If someone else would set up with him, they would lay him out for dead. She would warm him up and get a little soup down him. Heber had a set back and was so sick. The Ward brought us Christmas. I remember I got two dolls and one had blond hair, the other was brunette. I also got some dishes. I was so proud of them, and put the dolls in my cradle. They let me bring my table, cupboard and cradle when we moved. It was stormy and foggy in Vernal. Other boys would wait on the way from school and give my brothers a whipping. I was frightened. One little boy that was in my 1st grade, took his bottle to school with him. Then we decided to move to Mountain Home, Utah where my mother's half sister lived. Aunt Lucy and Uncle John Rowley. We moved upon a place one half mile south of them. It had 160 acres. Uncle John was a big and tough man. Aunt Lucy was mild and sweet. They had a big family. We would go to visit them. We lived in a tent, and I remember someone sick wrapped in a quilt on the ground. There was no ditches and no water. We hauled water from a flowing well. When they made ditches we hauled water from them. I remember my brothers tying ropes around the sage brush and tying the ropes around their bodies and pulling the sage brush off the land to clear it for farming and then at night we would burn the sage brush and would play, "run sheep run; hide and seek; and other such games by the light of the fire. My dad worked on the canal and often soaked dry bread in the water for his dinner. I will never be any poorer than I have been. We didn't have anything. We finally got timber logs cut and built a two room house that had a dirt roof and always leaked. The wind and snow blew through the cracks between the logs. The chicken coop and stable was built of rocks put together with clay mud. When my mother could find enough rags she wove a carpet to put on the floor, that made it nice. We had straw ticks for mattresses, no sheets. We had overall quilts made out of the worn out overalls. That was cold. We walked 2 1/2 miles each way to school with snow to the top of four barb wire fences. It was a one room school house with a pot bellied stove that we put wood in to keep us a little warm. All eight grades were in the same room, each grade in a row, with two teachers. I learned to milk cows when I was six years old. I was a regular hand on the farm by the time I was eight years old, and I was proud when I could accomplish difficult tasks such as put the harness on the team and hook them to the wagon and put the saddle on the horse. We raised a garden and had turkeys, chickens, ducks, pigs, horses and cows, which I herded. The pigs were the worst to herd. We woke up early each morning to the tune of, ...."Come see"..... "come see the little colt, chickens, ducks, calves, pigs", etc. We would go out to milk the cows, and a few mornings they didn't have any milk. We thought the neighbors were milking them. So we got up real early to catch them. It was the little pigs sucking them, so we built better pig pens. I usually had a gingham dress for the 4th of July and Christmas. One Christmas my mother was sick. We didn't have anything for Christmas. The boys were making popcorn balls and teasing me telling me there wasn't any Santa Claus. I was feeling bad and getting ready for bed when Santa Claus walked in and brought us each a gift. We were all so grateful. Most of the time Christmas presents was from little gifts to sometimes nothing. I had my only birthday surprise when I was seven years old. We had new peas and milk in my play dishes for refreshments. For the 4th of July we would have five or ten cents to spend. I always bought a banana. We didn't have enough money to buy a one way ticket to hell with. We were taught to obey and do our work and obey those in authority and to love our neighbors and friends. I was a husky little girl, with my hair braided in French braids close to my head, and as brown as a bug. I liked to go out picking the wild flowers that grew all over the hills. Still do. We washed on the wash board, made our own soap, and melted snow on the stove in a #3 wash tub, which we had a bath in every Saturday night. We always went to church, sometimes in the wagon or buggy or sleigh, or walked. My mother was a good Sunday school teacher. I think we got our energy from my mother and our calmness from Dad. He was a fine man, an honest and hard worker. He herded sheep from the time he was nine years old and was proud of his record of saving 100% of the lambs...he was so dependable. My mother usually got up at 4:00 in the morning and to bed at 12:00 midnight. She would make rugs or weave carpets, or anything!! Didn't matter as long as she was busy..and we had to keep up or she would of killed us.. and I just as soon she did as to let us grow up complaining and lazy. It was a thrill when we raised enough grain to take to the flour mill and trade for our flour, germade and bran and shorts. We would trade 100 lbs of wheat for 50 lbs. of flour. All they had in the stores was a few spices, salt, sugar, molasses candy, and a few bolts of material that was 15 cents a yard and which they hauled in wagons from Price, Utah over muddy rocky roads. They had no fruit. The first fruit I tasted was when Willard found wild raspberries and my mother made raspberry jam. Gee, it was the best thing I ever tasted. Sugared maple candy was the worst I ever tasted. We made cheese, cottage cheese, butter cream and ate lots of clabbered milk. No one had a refrigerator. We built a rock room beside the house. We went a quarter of a mile before the sun was up to carry cold water to throw around the floor and walls to keep the milk and other things cold. I milked seven cows and fed the animals before walking 2 1/2 miles to school and came home and did them again. One Thanksgiving our teacher asked us what we were thankful for. We didn't say anything, until one little boys held up his hand. The teacher said "What are you thankful for Delbert?" He said in his slow voice, "I am thankful we are not as stupid as the teacher thinks we are." When I was seven or eight years old, my sister Fannie got a divorce from her first husband. I liked him a lot. Sometimes it takes a long time to see the good in people, but if we see the good in them, their faults don't bother you and if we see the faults we have a hard time finding the good....we all have both. I took care of her three little boys. I never once hit one of them I still love them a lot and all the rest of my nieces and nephews. When I was about ten years old, I was digging potatoes all day and came home after dark and ate some bread and milk and was kneeling by the bed to say my prayers and went to sleep and woke up nearly morning still kneeling there. I have been that tired many times since. We thought it was awful if our mother did what we could have done. I used to make a quilt and sleep in the cow shed or hay stack in the summers. I rode horses a lot. We had a little freckled pony we liked a lot and a dog that used to play hid and seek. She could find us no matter where we hid. My life has been so different than I could have ever imagined. There were so many rabbits that used to eat all the hay. My brothers would dress warm and get on the hay stack and shoot as many as forty a night, and we cleaned them and would cook them and feed them to the chickens. I can still remember that smell! I couldn't stand it. Leonard was so good to watch after me when I was growing up. He told me a story..."Once there was a beautiful large apple high in a tree. Everyone that saw it wanted it, trying every way to get it. One day a little bird came along and picked at it. Then it withered and fell to the ground and then no one wanted it...and that is the way in life, if we ever fall", he said. When he got killed working for the city of Salt Lake in 1950, I was sick all summer and had virus pneumonia. I wasn't afraid of toads, pollywogs or mice. I put a mouse in my sister-in-laws pocket. She fainted, so I never did that again. There was no doctor so people helped each other. In 1918, when the flu was so bad, the father of a family of ten said he didn't want anyone to come to their home to bring the flu or he would shoot them. So no one went for months. No one saw them out and finally someone went to see how they were and all of them were dead...all over the house. One morning I wanted to lay in bed. Mother told me to get up. I didn't. She came with a bucket of cold water and raised the covers and threw it all over me. I was mad and said I wouldn't get up until I was dry. She said, "You won't ever get dry in that bed", and came with another bucket. I never tried that again. I remember our first toothbrush about when I was in the 4th grade and a small tube of toothpaste. It was so gritty. I couldn't stand it, so didn't use it. The mail was carried on a horse through blizzards, cold or whatever. The only letter I remember was the one when my Grandpa died. That was edged in black. That very morning I had said to my mother, "I would like to see Grandpa again before he dies." When I was young, I worked for a family of four children for $2.50 a week. At fourteen years old, I came to Roosevelt and worked at a rooming house as maid and waiting table, etc. I started to High School at age sixteen. My girl friend had a boy friend that worked for William Monroe Lloyd. He took us to Upalco, Utah to eat watermelons. That is when I met Otto Lloyd, William's son. He came back to Roosevelt with us, and asked me to marry him. I was just a kid so I said OK, and told my mother so she helped me get married. I only went with him three times in three weeks. On October 2, 1920, we went to Duchesne, Utah and got married. We went in his dad's old Ford. Mother gave me a quilt and a rug. I had all I owned in half a 50# sack. Otto took me to their place to live. They had two real small bedrooms and a small kitchen. We slept most of the winter in a white top buggy, in denim quilts. I guess it didn't matter. It froze the water in the glasses before we got the dishes done in the house. I was raised with a slave driver and they weren't. They liked to milk the cows at 10:00pm, etc. It was all so different to me. None of us did the same things, so I made hen nests, chopped wood, got water, set the hens, took care of the little chickens, etc. They made fun of me. My first child, a daughter, was born in the fall of 1921. Mother came to help us. When she was two days old, Otto got small pox and was real sick. When she was ten days old she got them also. She was covered with them and so sick. No one would come near, they were afraid they would get them, so Otto still had to do the chores. Mother got them. She was still taking care of washing, and cooking and us. They even turned black on Mother. Otto still stayed home to help his folks. The summer of 1923 we moved into a one room house in the field that was 12x12 feet. We had nothing. They didn't give him anything. We went through the Temple May 31, 1923. My second child, a son, Doyle Otto Lloyd, was born September 3, 1923 at my mothers in Roosevelt. (He died on February 28, 1999, in Roosevelt, Utah). Then we moved into another house with two rooms until they finally built a two room log house in Ioka, Utah, where Otto had bought eighty acres. The house had shingles on, but the wind blew through the wall cracks and the floor. We had a cook stove but it was so cold we couldn't keep the house warm. We bought more land joining us. We finally bought three hundred acres to farm. It took us a long time to pay for it. When we did get it all paid for, we never went in debt for anything else. They got electricity in Ioka in 1940. We were the first ones to buy a refrigerator. It cost $119.00, a General Electric. We sold it in 1969 for $35.00 and hadn't even had to buy one 15 cent bulb for it. Then we bought a combination deep freeze and refrigerator for my birthday. It was $365.00. My third child, a son, was born the summer of 1925. He was skinny. I guess I worked too hard trying to get things done. Otto worked on Moon Lake. I milked fifteen cows night and morning, carrying the milk to the house and turning a hand separator and feeding the animals and taking care of the family and garden. My fourth child, a son, was born the spring of 1927. We both nearly died. Mother came to help again. She sat down on the nearest chair when she saw me. I couldn't even wash for over a week. The winter of 1929 we had another little girl that weighed four and one-half pounds. She had heart trouble and only lived seventeen days. Then I had two more premature babies, then we had a little boy the spring of 1934. I had a placenta premia confinement and nearly died. He just lived four hours. Those two little graves has been one of my heartaches all my life. Then we again lost two more premature babies. I had to have my appendix out in 1940 and had my tubes tied also. On the Lloyd side, they were all real good to me and it made me very happy. Good memories are very important. February it froze all my flowers in the house while I was in the hospital. I gave my two best cows to the doctor to pay the doctor bills we owed. Life sure wasn't easy. I have always been so very proud of all my children and the ones they chose for their mates and their families. They are all far above average and I love them greatly and they are real good to me. In my life of blunders, how I have often yearned to have one life for practice and one when I have learned. I have often thought if I hadn't been so young maybe I would have been better, but all through the years I tried to guard my children. I would have killed anyone that tried to harm them. I know we can't ever pick up where we left off. When two of my sons went in the Army, it made me sick for them to go. I was asked to be head cook at the Elementary School. We had a wood stove, not much to do with. I got $3.50 a day for manager wages. We went on the bus with the kids at first, then drove our own cars. We bought our first car in 1934, a Ford. It cost $500.00. That was our first seed crop money. We thought we were rich. I worked there nine years, then I was transferred to the Junior High and worked there twelve years. I finally got $100.00 a month. I am good to save money. I started to buy and sell cows, calves, pigs, etc. I traded 100 red hens for 5000 feet of timber and paid Walt Zobell $250.00 to build four more rooms on the house and cabinets. That made a lot more room. When I was 35 years old, I cried all day. I didn't want no one to say Happy Birthday to me. I felt ancient!! January 18, 1965 I fell and broke both arms. Don't ask no questions about how I got along. February 1972, I broke my leg. That wasn't so good either. We moved to Roosevelt, Utah on April 7, 1962. We sold the ranch for $21,500 and paid $10,000 for the house we are in now. We have liked it real well. Otto and I worked cleaning the bank. When we got there one morning they had left the door open where they put their sacks of money. I was real frightened. I tried to call all the bank officials and found they had gone to a Bankers Convention. I thought someone had left it open as an inside job to rob the bank, so I called the cops and they watched it. We worked at the theater as janitors for a few years until Otto had his first attack. He died April 2, 1971. When Otto and I worked at the hotel we got $5.00 a day for both of us. Otto took care of testing of the cream and washing the cans, and I took care of the hotel washing, ironing, washing windows, taking care of customers, etc. That would have been 12 cents per hour. I am rich because I don't owe anyone, and I don't expect to, or don't want anyone to have to pay money out for me in any way. I would rather people owe me money than for me to owe anyone. Money is easily spent. I value love and respect above other things. The only peace we find is in our own hearts, because that is the only peace God has given to man. I remember when we went to church, the Sacrament water was in a large pitcher and one large glass. They passed it around for us each to take a sip out of it. It was a long time before they had individual cups. I have had school teacher live with me for four years. It is better not to have them to wait on. I have worked at the County Fair for a lot of years. The last nine years I have been the supervisor of the fine arts division. Then I started to set goals and improve my talents. I love to work with my hands and have made a lot of things. I was proud when I learned to make things better. I never tried to run competition with anyone but myself. I have won 13 trophies for my sewing and hand work, and decided to just put things in the Fair for display only. I have taught 4-H a lot of years, and taught Sunday School for 40 years. I was the first counselor in Primary for 7 years, taught Beehive girls a long time and the trail builders. I was president of Mutual for 5 years and Relief Society president for 5 years. I enjoy working. There is nothing I hate to do. I have learned the best thing to stand on is your own two feet! You never see a kitten bringing home a mouse to the old cat. It is also better to have a will of your own, than a will of a dead relative. God doesn't work through cowards and weaklings. I have had many rich blessings which has been more good luck than good management. Success is feeling good about yourself. And bloom where you are planted. I have enjoyed, and had much fun in the things I do, and the friends I have. I have had my appendix out, tonsils, hysterectomy, gall bladder, hemorrhoids, adhesions, small pox, chicken pox, typhoid fever, measles, scarlet fever, scar Latina, pneumonia, and flu. I have done a lot of first aid. I know I have saved a few lives. I would have liked to have been a nurse. I have traveled around a lot more than I ever expected to, with my sister Fannie. Otto and I went to Los Angeles, Oregon and Washington. With my brother Willard, we went to San Diego, and Disney Land. I have been to Vancouver Canada, New York City, Springfield Massachusetts, California, Mexico, Las Vegas, and Yellowstone Park. I have also been to a lot of school conventions for a week at a time. I love a good program and music and like to play the harmonica and pretty things. I make a lot of things and when I was young I would start so many things and not finish them, then I got them all out one at a time and finished them. Now when I start something I finish it. I just keep working on it until it is done, then start something else. I don't need a boss to keep me busy. My good memory didn't always pay off. I found out you have to be deaf and dumb and blind. I have two good qualities...I am not lazy and I am dependable. I adore all my grandchildren. I never see them that I don't tell them I love them...and my little great grandchildren, also. They are all so special to me. I don't want to have hatred or bitterness in my heart for anyone. Peace of mind is God's healing power over us. It heals many illnesses. The doctor said that three fourths of the people that they treat is from nervousness. In a lifetime there are times when one wants to run away and I have seen those times also. If you give a child and a pig everything they want, you have a good pig and a bad child. I am thankful I was born real poor. Now I can count my blessings. I know what I am thankful for. Zelma died January 25, 1997 in Roosevelt, Utah. Zelma's half brother and sisters are: George Chestnut, Melvina Chestnut, and Lizzie Chestnut. Zelma's full brothers and sisters are: *John Day... born September 15, 1889 in Teasdale, Utah...died September 15 1889. *Wilford Zenos Day...born September 27, 1890 in Circleville, Utah...died November 19, 1894. *Fannie Charlotte Day...born May 31, 1892 in Circleville, Utah...died October 18, 1982. *Thomas Benjamin Day...born July 26, 1894 in Circleville, Utah...died April 15, 1913. *Heber Marion Day...born January 20, 1897 in Circleville, Utah...died *Alma Edison Day...born October 6, 1899 in Circleville, Utah...died January 3, 1912. *Willard Albert Day...born June 28, 1900 in Circleville, Utah...died about 1994. *Leonard Francis Day...born March 18, 1902 in Circleville, Utah...died May 19, 1950. *Lawrence Berry Day...born March 18, 1902 in Circleville, Utah...died April 4, 1902. *Lloyd Day...born December 22, 1905, in Circleville, Utah...died December 26, 1905 Zelma's Parents and Grandparents Information... Zelma's father, Thomas Clark Day was born August 14, 1859 in Spanish Fork, Utah. He died July 6, 1946 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Thomas's father was Thomas Day, born September 2, 1814 in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England. He died January 6, 1893 in Circleville, Utah. Thomas's mother was Charlotte Clark, born August 2, 1837 in Royal Lemington, Warwickshire, England. She died December 20, 1887 in Circleville, Utah. Zelma's mother, Annie Eliza Berry was born August 21, 1865 in Sugar House, Utah. She died February 3, 1928 in Montwell, Utah. Annie's father was John Francis Berry, born September 4, 1832 in Westershire, Staffordshire, England. He died October 27, 1915 in San Bernardino, California. Annie's mother was Elizabeth Cherrington, born May 23, 1846 in Westershire, Staffordshire, England. She died July 28, 1887. Zelma's parents were married September 19, 1888 in the Manti Temple, Utah. __SHOWFACTBOX__